[cheadleplotter]

I put onion sets in last autumn, two varieties of brown onions and one of red and about half a dozen have started going to seed. I've been told to pull them up and eat them now as they won't store, is this right? And if some have gone to seed is it likely that the other will soon do the same?

[pumpkinpatch]

mine kept fine in the shed so why dont you pull them up and keep them in the shed. you just need to hang them from string and also if you dont want the seed just cut the head of when the start to grow because its ment to use energy that can be used to grow the actual onion its self not shure if its 100% true but its worth a go

[Elcie]

Noticed exactly the same thing in some of my autumn sown onions yesterday.  Have cut of the seed stem and leaving them for a little while as think they may still be ok.  Will use those ones first though as understand from reading on here that they won't store as well.

[Yorkie]

Someone else has also posted about onions going to seed - sending up flowering shoots.

Cut the stalk off pronto, and as Elcie says, they will need to be used first as they will not store properly.  Not sure whether you actually need to dig them up right now, though - seems a little drastic.

[blackbob]

all good advice

[Trillium]

Depends whether you want very small young onions or not as to whether or not you pull them now. As long as the flower head has been snapped off asap, the onion will continue to grow in size. You just need to mark these somehow and whenever your harvest comes, eat those first as they won't store well.

[Lorraine]

Thank you once again for good advice on this site.  My husband noticed flowering heads on two of my onions today so they will be dealt with tomorrow and marked with a stick.

[Sharonx]

Hi,
My Japanese onion sets planted last year are all still fine, but a few of the red onions planted this year had just started to form little flower pods. I cut these all off tonight, and they were just random odd ones so I will have no way of knowing now which to use first 

[DD.]

Those with a flower stalk will be quite evident at harvest time, as they will have an enlarged leaf in the centre of the onion.

It's quite rigid and usually stops the stalk from flopping over as the onion approaches maturity. These will all be standing to attention when the rest are having a kip.

[Sharonx]

So some will flower and some won't? Why is that then?

[Elcie]

So some will flower and some won't? Why is that then?

They will all flower eventually if you leave them long enough as setting seed is their main aim.  Some of them will do this earlier than others - think of them like stroppy teenagers, they are complaining about something that isn't quite right - not enough water, too much water, ground too hard, ground too soft and so on and so on.  Some of them just get on with it, bit like people!

[Trillium]

It's quite rigid and usually stops the stalk from flopping over as the onion approaches maturity. These will all be standing to attention when the rest are having a kip.

Mine are on the ball  I snap them off low. 

[yummy]

Hi,
My Japanese onion sets planted last year are all still fine, but a few of the red onions planted this year had just started to form little flower pods. I cut these all off tonight, and they were just random odd ones so I will have no way of knowing now which to use first 

Same here. My Japanese ones are fine but the spring planted red ones bolted yesterday. Nine of them in total and likewise they are all over the place (bet I won't remember which ones).